Angel Djambazovhttps://www.angeldjambazov.com
Professional marketing consultant, entrepreneur, film buff, and voracious reader
Sun, 19 Aug 2012 01:20:04 +0000 en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1Saisons’ Owner Makes Goodhttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/saisons-owner-makes-good
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/saisons-owner-makes-good#respondSun, 19 Aug 2012 00:53:06 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=247Mistakes happen. Some have the unfortunate effect of negatively coloring our perception of an event, place, or business. The fact that Saisons, a boutique store in Poulsbo, made such a mistake is ultimately less important than the fact they took …]]>Mistakes happen. Some have the unfortunate effect of negatively coloring our perception of an event, place, or business. The fact that Saisons, a boutique store in Poulsbo, made such a mistake is ultimately less important than the fact they took the time to fix it.

Erin Whitson, Owner of Saisons Boutique, reached out to Jenn via my review on Yelp. Emails were exchanged attempting to both explain the matter and apologize for the situation. The long and short of it is that in the end both Erin and the employee involved in the incident apologized. They did so via email and in person. Taking the time to meet Jenn in person at Cups Espresso in Poulsbo.

In an attempt to make amends they provided Jenn with a shirt from the store and made a $100 donation to Pony Up Rescue. Erin also promised to use the incident in training with all of her employees.

Bygones

The point of the earlier post was to draw attention to an incident. Such situations shouldn’t be brushed aside. It was also to give the owner a chance to make things right. They have done so. Thank you to Erin Whitson and Saisons for making the effort.

At the very least some good did come of it: the rescued horses at Pony Up appreciate the donation as well.

]]>https://www.angeldjambazov.com/saisons-owner-makes-good/feed0A Singularity Grows in Brooklynhttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/a-singularity-grows-in-brooklyn
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/a-singularity-grows-in-brooklyn#respondSun, 12 Aug 2012 07:43:14 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=241We are a household of bibliophiles. Downstairs MGX has curated a small but ever growing library of books. It takes up two rooms and contains around 15,000 books. They range far and wide in topic but MGX’s prize area is …]]>We are a household of bibliophiles. Downstairs MGX has curated a small but ever growing library of books. It takes up two rooms and contains around 15,000 books. They range far and wide in topic but MGX’s prize area is her Isaac Asimov collection. It takes up eight shelves.

And we have come to know the scientific law of books. You could say we’ve seen it in action. In mass they create singularities. I don’t know who first pointed that out but I credit Terry Pratchett who reportedly said:

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.

The owners of a new bookstore in Brooklyn seem to be aware of this law too. The aptly named Singularity & Co has a unique idea and mission. They want to rescue out of print science fiction. Their goal is to “rescue” by bringing back into circulation one sci-fi book a month. It is a great idea and perhaps a blueprint for one way bookstores may survive long term.

Perhaps it is foolhardy to open a new bookstore in an age where the last of the retail book giants are dying off. The Amazon juggernaut has through the Kindle crushed all in its path.

The thing is that Kindles may allow the consumption of pop culture books on a whim. But they are not good platforms for curation. At least not yet.

The folks at Singularity & Co seem to understand that curation is important. They have selected vintage cult titles to tantalize book lovers with. Taking it a step further they’re are encouraging their audience to help select which book to rescue next from a hand picked list of likely candidates. It’s a smart model.

Founded by Cici James, Jamil V. Moen and Ash Kalb, the Singularity & Co has me excited enough that I’m writing this post just after midnight on a Saturday. I would like to make one suggestion, if they happen to read this.

The Harvard Bookstore has carved out a successful model with print on demand. Reader can come in and via the coyly named Paige M. Gutenborg, get a book printed for them in minutes. And relatively inexpensively at that (although the machine itself isn’t cheap). It would be an excellent addition to their model for those pilgrims who wander in and want not just a digital resurrection but a physical one.

It was a perfect afternoon for a walk. We picked Poulsbo because it’s waterfront has the perfect pedestrian walkway. Not too long, not …

]]>Update 8/18/2012: The owners of Saisons Boutique have apologized for the situation. Please read further here.

It was a perfect afternoon for a walk. We picked Poulsbo because it’s waterfront has the perfect pedestrian walkway. Not too long, not too crowded, with a easy path alongside Liberty bay. Lots of artisans and good food in the area make for a pleasant wind down after a walk. Plus it’s safe. An area we can feel comfortable in and welcomed. Or so we thought.

After finishing our walk, Symphony and I planned to meet Jenn out front of one of downtown Poulsbo’s many shops. We spotted Jenn standing near the main crosswalk in front of Liberty Bay Books and Saisons Boutique. With purple hair she is easy to spot. Apparently her hair color makes her easy to blame as well.

Saisons Boutique J’Accuse

But we didn’t realize anything was wrong until 15 minutes later when Jenn was being pulled out of a Maple Grove Cottage store by two Poulsbo Sheriff’s officers. The issue? The manager had accused her of shoplifting a handbag.

Now it would be laughable if it wasn’t such an infuriatingly small minded action. Let me paint you a picture why.

Jenn had been inside Saisons. She had finished her work the local organic farm and had happened to stop in Saisons first to kill time. She had no other bag on her. And was in tight, if grubby, farmers clothes which consisted of jeans and a blouse. She had nowhere to “stash” a handbag on her. And after leaving Saisons she stood at the crosswalk waiting for Symphony and I to show up for 5 minutes.

Now it is true that when the Poulsbo Sheriff’s officers questioned her, Jenn was carrying a large plastic bag. Which she had picked up after a purchase from Bad Blanche Collection. She cooperatively showed the contents to the officers. It contained one green sunhat, one faux-leather Indian Jones style hat, one science fiction book I had picked up from the Poulsbo Bookstop when I went in to see how the owner Soon was doing since she had recently fallen seriously ill. That’s it. Saisons’ allegedly missing handbag was not mysteriously there.

What’s truly frustrating is that the Saisons’ manager must have determined something was missing from the store. Remembered Jenn who had been standing outside her store and certainly didn’t look like one of her customers. Farmer grubs and purple hair don’t scream high-end browser. And figured her for a thief based solely on her looks.

She then must have called the Sheriff and tracked our progress through various stores across the street (Saisons is located dead in the middle of this shopping area) because when the officers arrived she led them directly to where Jenn was shopping.

Saisons Meet the Wrongfully Accused

I want Saisons to know a little about the person they wrongfully accused on a whim. Jenn studied forensic anthropology (which included extensive law enforcement studies) and is now an all organic farmer. She volunteers weekly at Pony Up Horse Rescue
(Photo above: she can be seen being frisked by her favorite horse Winston…yep, still no handbag).

The farm she works at supplies produce to many local stores including the Mor Mor restaurant and Central Market. The workers there and the folks at the Poulsbo Market know how smart, friendly, and charming she is because they bothered to talk to her. When she walked into your store you didn’t even bother to great her. But you did bother to accuse her. Your loss.

See, we spent nearly $200 that day. Just not at your store. Along with the hats, and the book, we had also picked up a set of large test tubes and an antique box since my wife is a science geek and just couldn’t resist adding to the collection of odds and ends in our library. We frequent the downtown Poulsbo shops stopping at Liberty Bay Books, Bookstop, Mor Mor, Sluy’s Bakery, Burrata Bistro Paella Bar, Mora’s Ice Cream, and the Poulsbohemian coffee shop, as well as the half a dozen antique stores in the area.

But because the manager of Saisons didn’t recognize Jenn and she looked out of place from all the standard issue ladies that come to browse it was easy to brand her a suspect. And publicly humiliate her mind you on a busy Thursday afternoon. Saisons not only lost merchandise that day, wrongfully accused a stranger, and let the real shoplifter go. Guess what? The shoplifter probably looked like clientele. By acting like bigots you lost a future customer.

]]>https://www.angeldjambazov.com/saisons-bigoted-actions-ruin-afternoon-in-poulsbo/feed1Prometheus: An Aesthetically Beautiful Spectacular Misfirehttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/prometheus-an-aesthetically-beautiful-spectacular-misfire
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/prometheus-an-aesthetically-beautiful-spectacular-misfire#respondFri, 10 Aug 2012 16:34:28 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=200What do you say about a beautiful science fiction film filled with “scientists” who are the type of characters that Harold and Kumar would have outwitted or whose plot holes are larger than the worlds it’s trying to build? There …]]>What do you say about a beautiful science fiction film filled with “scientists” who are the type of characters that Harold and Kumar would have outwitted or whose plot holes are larger than the worlds it’s trying to build? There already has been heaps of derision piled upon Ridley Scott and the ridiculousness that is Prometheus. The following two videos by How It Should’ve Ended:

and Red Letter

sum up most of my feelings about the plot pretty well. The best thing you can say about the film is that it has sparked a lot of conversation.

What I want to talk about are the missed opportunities within the film. It’s obvious that Scott put a lot of care into the design elements. The spaceship, the spacesuits, the Engineers’ craft, and even the monster designs of the “alien penis snake” and the straight out of the Cthulhu mythos squid, are all rendered meticulously. There are elements, like the human’s helmets, that are meant to be a nod to golden age sci-fi. It is a distinctive vision Scott seemed to be striving for.

And it was such clarity that made Ridley Scott’s Alien a classic film. Think back to the aesthetic of the rundown look of the miners and the griminess of the USS Nostromo, the otherworldliness of their walkabout on LV-426 in response to the distress beacon, the small touches of how the hanging chains and dripping water mimicked the alien appendages and slime. All of those moments not only express the clearness of vision but incorporated that vision into the sense of awe and tension that was needed for such a film to work.

That is exactly what’s missing in Prometheus. Ridley Scott does not weave the aesthetic elements and the story elements together. Instead of being immersive they are forever apart. To the point where it feels like the actors are just walking on the set as if it was a play. That might work in a film like Glengarry Glen Ross. It does not work in a science fiction film.

Hammerpede Attack

Scott had the opportunity to build tension in several scenes. Take the Hammerpede (aka alien penis snake) scenes. When the characters of Fifield (Sean Harris) and Milburn (Rafe Spall) get attacked by these things it feels haphazard. One minute there is black goo leaking down containers, the next there are worms playing in the goo (don’t get me started on how/why there are worms on a spaceship that is in on a desolate planet), then bam a large Hammerpede thing is attacking the love struck biologist.

Silly as it is the scene would be forgivable if there was any tension to it. A simple stalking scene would have sufficed. The stage was set after all. They were stuck in the alien ship for the evening, after seeing dead alien bodies they had hustled over to an area filled with strange containers and black liquid. It would have been an excellent setting for a stalking scene. The scenario could have played out in several ways:

Our hapless scientists could have been herded through the room by the Hammerpede or;

Since we had seen multiple worms the scientists could have successfully killed one but have been overcome by the others.

Either would have been better than the “Oh what a pretty alien-snake-cobra-penis-hissing-thing. I think I will touch it” scene that played out.

The opportunity to have a stalking scene could have played out at a second point in the film when the remaining characters discover Milburn’s body. The audience already knows the creatures are dangerous. Having the snakes pose some peril to the crew would have amplified tension.

Rock and a Hard Place

The protagonist being stuck between a rock and a hard place is standard dramatic trope. So near the end of Prometheus, when the character of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is stuck between the Cthulhu mythos squid she birthed and the pissed off Engineer whose shipped she helped down, I felt we were in for a good climatic moment. But again Scott missed his opportunity.

Think of the scene in Peter Jackson’s King Kong where the character of Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is stuck between a pair of battling tyrannosaurus rexs, that are set on making a meal of her, and King Kong. That scene plays out with such a mix of tension, action, and awe that the audience is left a bit exhausted afterward.

The Engineer’s demise at the the hands of the squid can be instead described as punctual.

I would have loved to have seen a few moments of Shaw’s character attempting to hide from and between the squid creature as the Engineer was hunting for her. Allowing for the audience to see the squid creature to slither about at the parameter while the Engineer missed its presence being too focused on the hunt for Shaw through the rather large escape pod. A few moments would have made all the difference.

Sense of Awe

Scientists have a sense of awe and wonder. One need only look at the video of the NASA engineers reaction when Curiosity landed successfully on Mars to know this. The characters in Prometheus are devoid of awe. Things happen around them and to them and they scarcely seem to notice.

Discover an alien head? Not nearly interesting enough, let’s mope and go drinking. Find an alien ship and translate its language? No big deal. Let’s not take any samples (other than the aforementioned head). Covered in blood after undergoing a self-guided c-section? Par for the course. Missing colleague turns into a zombie and kills several crew members. Just a plot point move on.

Each moment moves forward without a sense that characters are in awe of the magnitude of their situation. Ridley Scott provides no sense of scope other than the visual palette.

It dosen’t have to even be in a big moment. I think of Peter Jackson’s King Kong again. There is a moment out of time at the climax of the film where Kong, with Ann Darrow in hand, steps on to some ice. It is playful, it is magical, it is full of wonder. It is the scene that made the movie for me providing more awe than any moment in Prometheus:

At the end of the day good science fiction or fantasy should instill those elements. Otherwise it is simply cold functioning aesthetic much like the character of David in Prometheus. During the marketing campaign that was the build up to the film, fake commercials around David were released. One started with the question, “What is it about robots that makes them so robotic?” One could ask a similar question of Prometheus.

Interestingly the viral videos done around his character are sharper and more alive than anything in the actual film.

]]>https://www.angeldjambazov.com/prometheus-an-aesthetically-beautiful-spectacular-misfire/feed0Thank Goodness for Comfort Foodhttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/thank_goodness_for_comfort_food
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/thank_goodness_for_comfort_food#commentsWed, 18 Nov 2009 17:46:12 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=163I am eating homemade fried chicken for breakfast. I don’t recommend this as a habit, but indulgence is a wonderful thing. Often in the quest for that ever more amazing dish I forget there is more to food than eating …]]>I am eating homemade fried chicken for breakfast. I don’t recommend this as a habit, but indulgence is a wonderful thing. Often in the quest for that ever more amazing dish I forget there is more to food than eating at places with sommeliers. Not implying a good pairing of wine doesn’t do wonders for food, it’s just that sometimes the comfort food provides is worth more than fancy dress.

Last weekend I found myself on a comfort food quest. Three local greasy spoons in three days. A craving for pie spurred this. Chocolate pie.

You see I am one of those weird people who like fruit and like pie but do not like fruit pie. Pies made from secret recipes by people’s grandmothers being the exception to that rule. But from most diners what I am searching for is chocolate pie.

When you are seeking comfort, convenience is important. You don’t want to go out of your way to be comfortable. Driving through the small towns around Hood Canal is very relaxing. The scenery is gorgeous, the towns quaint, and there is no traffic to speak of. So why not stop at a diner or three?

Even if you haven’t been to these particular locations, if you’ve ate at any small town you’ve been to these diners. All have a few factors in common: the walls are held up by kitsch, the paint is old, the staff is friendly but not interested in serving your every whim, and there is always a smattering of local folk who know the staff by name.

The menu features burgers, fries, chicken strips, and cheese-stuffed hotdogs wrapped in bacon. No, these are not organic dishes. It’s the kind of food Anthony Bourdain would say “died screaming”. And unless you are certifiable don’t under any circumstance order the “vegetarian burger” even if they should happen to have one. If you must, get a salad instead. Also be sure to look for that rare treat the SLT, as in spam with lettuce and tomato. It’s a sure sign you’ve come to the right place.

Pictures rarely help this type of food. That’s because it doesn’t belong on a magazine cover. It belongs in your tummy.

The main event for me, of course, is the pie. I tried three chocolate pies last weekend. And no, I don’t recommend this as a habit. They varied in consistency from pudding to spackle. Now if you live in Seattle, Portland or anywhere outside of a ten mile radius of Hood Canal I wouldn’t urge you to drive to these spots. Two of the three pies were nothing to write home about. And yes, forcing myself to eat chocolate pies was a hardship.

However, if you happen to be driving through a little town called Brinnon on the Western side of Hood Canal and you happen to be craving chocolate pie there is a joint with the dubious name of the Halfway House. The pie is worth stopping for, and according to Jenn so is the berry cobbler when the fruit is in season. And like my wife’s fried chicken, it provides the type goodness only comfort food can.

]]>https://www.angeldjambazov.com/thank_goodness_for_comfort_food/feed2Goodbye to Baby Godzillahttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/goodbye-to-baby-godzilla
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/goodbye-to-baby-godzilla#respondSat, 06 Jun 2009 11:25:46 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=68
Our household has been still for a week now. I imagine its the same stillness and quiet after Godzilla leaves.

The city of course is never the same. At least until the next film when it is miraculously rebuilt. But …

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Our household has been still for a week now. I imagine its the same stillness and quiet after Godzilla leaves.

The city of course is never the same. At least until the next film when it is miraculously rebuilt. But when you watch Godzilla movies you’re not focused on the city. Godzilla’s personality is simply to big to allow anything else on the screen. And don’t give me the digital Godzilla, that phony coopted film with Mathew Broderick, I want the real thing because sometimes there is no greater joy than watching a man in a rubber suit knock down buildings.

Because it’s Godzilla’s Tokyo.

In many ways it was Rohannon’s house. Although the runt of the litter her personality was that big. She came with her own sound effects. When she roared it sounded like Godzilla. It’s how the nickname of “Baby Godzilla” came about and it was the first greeting all visitors received. She was letting you know you were walking into her house.

She was the matriarch of her domain. Organizing all the other cats, including her two brothers Cha’lar and Midi, into their places. The living room was arranged by where she wanted to sit that day. And if that spot happened to be your chest (she had a certain fondness for large boobs) well then you were part of that arrangement. Rohannon would grumble, fuss and roar until her seat was properly arranged.

And more than the days of actor’s in rubber suits I will miss her something fierce.

]]>https://www.angeldjambazov.com/goodbye-to-baby-godzilla/feed0Coffeecast.fm and the Emerald Cityhttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/guest-appearance_on_coffeecastfm
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/guest-appearance_on_coffeecastfm#respondFri, 08 May 2009 11:49:33 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=96Blame it on Seattle. The coffee is simply too good here. Constant access to amazing coffee has spoiled my once simple love for a good roast. I’ve become a coffee snob. I get to talk shop this week with two …]]>Blame it on Seattle. The coffee is simply too good here. Constant access to amazing coffee has spoiled my once simple love for a good roast. I’ve become a coffee snob. I get to talk shop this week with two cohorts who share the coffee bug, Scott Jangro and Todd Crawford who have a great little podcast at CoffeeCast.fm. Listen in to hear three regular joes geek out to over coffee here.
]]>https://www.angeldjambazov.com/guest-appearance_on_coffeecastfm/feed0Breakable You and The Bridgehttps://www.angeldjambazov.com/breakable_you_and_the_bridge
https://www.angeldjambazov.com/breakable_you_and_the_bridge#respondTue, 05 May 2009 01:27:31 +0000http://www.angeldjambazov.com/?p=45On the surface these two books have nothing in common. One is about a family in Manhattan with close ties to the publishing industry. The other is a magical realism story about a man living on an endless bridge and …]]>On the surface these two books have nothing in common. One is about a family in Manhattan with close ties to the publishing industry. The other is a magical realism story about a man living on an endless bridge and the timelines that intersect through him. I guess that’s the key, timelines.

Rarely do I read a novel straight through. Often I will lay down a book for several months before finishing it. This was the case with Ian Banks’ The Bridge. I had set it down not because of lack of interest but because it got misplaced in the shuffle while I was traveling. This occurred somewhere between Seattle and SXSW. I found it again while going through my swag from Austin.

By that time I had nearly finished Brian Morton’s Breakable You. Never having read Morton before I had picked it up at random during the binge that is the Seattle Friends of the Library Booksale.

Maudlin is good word for the book. It’s a story that revolves around the New York literary scene and set of broken characters that are in transition. The book is full of awkward moments in the character’s lives, you know the way pivotal moments in life really are.

Morton’s style is problematic. He keeps having the character’s give these introspective asides. He’s trying to let the reader into the thought processes of the character and he’s also purposefully slipping in some philosophy. I don’t have an issue with that. I have an issue with the construct.

Milan Kundera, for example, constantly breaks the fourth wall in order to communicate directly to the reader. In The Unbearable Lightness of Being he stops the narrative to describe how one of the characters was born out of something he ate. That’s because Kundera is less interested in plot then he is in detailing a novel of ideas.

Morton is interested in plot. Every aspect of Breakable You works like a moving sidewalk moving the reader forward. Every time an aside is thrown in however it’s like someone toggled the moving sidewalk’s power switch. It completely takes you out of the story. What should be ferociously moving moments in the story: a child’s illness, a mother’s inability to cope her baby, are blunted by the way Morton wields these monologue length asides. Which is unfortunate because there is a strong story here.

Which brings me back to The Bridge. When I picked it back up a funny thing happened. The timelines for both novels essentially intersected. Both contain nearly identical scenes of characters dealing with infidelity and of a car crash due to driver’s fatigue. While neither author does a spectacular job with these scenes it is amazing how much better Banks’ writing is because he can relate ideas without having his characters monologue.

If maudlin best describes Breakable You, haunting best describes The Bridge. This novel reminds me in many ways of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind especially in tone. There is a scene in that film where Jim Carrey’s character is walking through a library and suddenly every book and cover goes blank. The scene was chilling to me (and not just because of my addiction to books). In The Bridge there is a scene where workers show up to a man’s residence in order to move him. Since he is a ward of the state who is being demoted they go about repossessing every item he owns including the clothes he’s wearing. Equally chilling.

Through most of the novel there are two main characters: a man who is lost and a construct which the book takes its title from. The Bridge as a character serves as a metaphor, a place, a society, and a connection between multiple timelines. The timelines involve the lost man’s past and future and sense of self. It’s a story worth exploring.

They say the lightning never strikes twice. Sometimes they’re wrong. On January 29th, 2009 I was fortunate enough to win my second Pinnacle Award for Affiliate Manager of the YearÂ from Affiliate Summit.

The first time I won the award …

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They say the lightning never strikes twice. Sometimes they’re wrong. On January 29th, 2009 I was fortunate enough to win my second Pinnacle Award for Affiliate Manager of the YearÂ from Affiliate Summit.

The first time I won the award was as the affiliate manager for Onlineshoes.com. It was essentially my rookie year, thankfully I had a lot of guidance from the community at ABestWeb. The program I had taken over received a lot of focus for the massive cleanup underwent initially to parasites from a channel that had been on autopilot for the four years prior. After the cleanup we achieved (pdf) 110% growth year over year, rare for a clean program.

With Jones Soda the experience was very different. Not simply because the products and audiences of both companies were different but because their cultures were so different. While a great place to work, Onlineshoes is a prototypical corporate online retailer. Jones Soda, while also a large corporation, had built a strong brand around a very grassroots counter culture following.

Having carte blanche is a consultant’s dream. Jones Soda gave me that kind of freedom. I got to do some very creative campaigns with ICanHasCheezburger.com and the Graffiti application on Facebook. Plus where else do you get to promote Barrack Obama and Ron Paul soda?

No matter how creative the campaigns in the corporate world the numbers trump. The ICHC campaign was so successful that Jones Soda placed lolcats offline in retailers like Target during the Fall of ’08. We also posted (pdf) 42% growth year over year which in 2008 as the economy was dovetailing isn’t bad at all.